Author: plotdesigner

poetry-protest-pornography:

thehoneyedmoon:

losethehours:

why-animals-do-the-thing:

xmasqueradeangelx:

otomesass:

This is the spoopy content you need on your dash

This is so precious I can’t even…

Everybody loves pumpkin enrichment! 

These are great items because they’re fun for the herbivores to each, the carnivores to tear apart, and everybody to roll and throw around. They’re tactile, olfactory, and edible enrichment all in one! 

I believe they’re acceptable on-exhibit enrichment for naturalistic facilities like Brookfield in Chicago, too. 

I think of this time of year as Tumblr’s Annual Pumpkining of the Animals Post.

The bat though!

This is the best thing!

Our local pumpkin farm gives any unsold pumpkins to the zoo!

Source: silverbelling

Linguistics and Language Podcasts

kitchengay:

allthingslinguistic:

superlinguo:

Looking for podcasts about language and linguistics? Here’s a comprehensive list with descriptions! I’ve also mentioned if shows have transcripts. If there are any I missed, let me know!

Linguistics

Lingthusiasm A podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch
and Lauren Gawne (that’s me!). Main episodes every third
Thursday of every month, with a second bonus episode on Patreon. (Transcripts for main episodes)

Talk the Talk Every
week Daniel, Ben, and Kylie cover the news in linguistics and tackle a
particular topic.

The Vocal Fries Every
episode Carrie Gillon & Megan Figueroa tackle linguistic
discrimination in relation to a particular group. (Transcripts for some episodes)

Language

The Allusionist Stories
about language and the people who use it, from Helen Zaltzman (Transcripts for all episodes) (my review)

Grammar Girl Episodes
are rarely longer than 15 minutes, but they’re full of tips about
English grammar and style for professional writing, and more! (Transcripts for all episodes).

The World in Words From PRI, The World in Words has been delivering wonderful interview-drive stories about language and life since 2008.

Conlangery Particularly for those with an interest in constructed
languages, they also have episodes that focus on specific natural
languages, or linguistic phenomena. 

Subtext a podcast about the linguistics of online dating.

English

History of English Meticulously researched, professionally
produced and engaging content on the history of English. I have already reviewed it three times (episodes 1-4, episodes 5-79, bonus episodes).

Lexicon Valley Hosted by John McWhorter, with a focus on English.

That’s What They Say Every
week linguist Anne Curzan joins Rebecca Kruth on Michigan public radio
for a five minute piece on a quirk of English language.

A Way With Words A
talk-back format show on the history of English words, cryptic
crosswords and slang.

Dictionaries

Word For Word From Macquarie
dictionary, with a focus on
Australian English.

Fiat Lex A podcast about making dictionaries from Kory Stamper & Steve Kleinedler.

Words/etymology

Words for Granted In
each episode Ray Belli explores the history of a common English word in
around fifteen minutes.

Very Bad Words A
podcast about swearing and our cultural relationship to it.

Lexitecture Ryan, a Canadian,  and Amy, a Scot share their chosen word each episode.

Animology Vegan blogger Colleen Patrick Goudreau uses her love of animals as a starting point for exploring animal-related etymologies.

Translation

Speaking of Translation A monthly podcast from Eve Bodeux & Corinne McKay.

LangFM Stories of people from the world of language, including interpreters, translators, dialect coaches and many more.

Troublesome Terps The podcast about the things that keep interpreters up at night.

Back catalogues and Odds & Ends

There are also a number of podcasts that have only a few episodes, are no longer being made, or are very academic in their focus:

This is a completely revised listing from June 2018. The March 2017 list kept growing (yay!) so I’ve now completely restructured it based on themes. I’m always excited to be able to add more podcasts to the list, so if
you know of any linguistics/language podcasts not here, please let me
know! (I usually wait until a show has at least 3 episodes before I add
it to the list)

This is a very useful list that I keep coming back to and it’s great to see that @superlinguo is still keeping it updated! 

@bookhobbit

gablesmcgee:

slimetony:

nicejewishguy:

auttoton:

breaaak:

slimetony:

slimetony:

lets make a videogame how hard can it be

nevermind you have to know shit about computers

hey!! sorry to hijack this post, but there are a bunch of ways you can make videogames without knowing shit about computers!! 

for starters, there’s Twine, which is fucking great for making all kinds of interactive experiences (it’s what Crystal Warrior Ke$ha was made in so you KNOW it’s good) at all skill levels (i picked it up and made a game in two minutes a few nights ago)

if you want a bit more involved experience there’s Inform 7 which is a simple language for text-based adventure games that reads like slightly-weird English and also relatively easy to learn

you can do some pretty fucking cool stuff with Unity (my personal engine of choice) but you may need to dig a bit farther to get at the good stuff. there’s lots of really good presets though (i made an entire game just mixing and matching pre-existing templates and adding in my own art, won an award at a game jam for that one) and if you want help the community’s pretty dang friendly from what i’ve seen!

this is just a taste of what’s out there from what i’ve seen, but there’s so many cool resources out there. if anyone wants help getting started, i’m around to give you a leg up on making something in the coolest, most unexplored art medium around!

I’m addin’ to this post because lowering the barrier to entry for making games is super important to me!!!! If y’all have any questions about making games, you’re welcome to come and ask! I made this list a while back with some friends, so it has some of the programs John already mentioned.

2D Editors:

GameMaker : Potential for pure drag-and-drop “programming”. It is recommended to read-up on the program’s functions to make good use of it. Good for prototyping. Uses its own language called Game Maker Language (GML) that is similar to a C language (e.g. C++ or C#). For both Mac and PC; free version available.

Construct2 : Drag and drop level editor that uses an “If-Then” event sheet structure for programming. Good for prototyping and for beginners. For PC; free version available.

GameSalad : Drag and drop with no code requirement. Good for programming. For both Mac and PC; free version available.

Solpeo : HTML5 based game engine for 2D and isometric game development. Some programming knowledge needed. Platforms supported: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 9+. Free version available.

Stencyl : Drag and Drop “programming,” templates you can edit the variables/values for.

Scratch : Lego-block-style coding platform by MIT; totally free and a great intro to thinking in code. Very kid-friendly and comes with a community site. Browser version available.

3D Editors:

Unity : 3D editor that creates 3D games. Can build games for browser, as an app, or for mobile devices (iOS and Android). For both Mac and PC; free version available.

UDK (Unreal Development Kit) : Full-fledged, highly advanced editor. Features a complete set of tools that go from level design to visual scripting to cut-scene creation. Uses it’s own programming language called Unreal Script that can be arranged with Kismet, a visual code editor. For Mac and PC; free.

2D Art/Animation Software:

GIMP : Free photo editing and digital painting software.

Easy Paint Tool SAI : Free digital painting software with a UI similar to Photoshop.

Mischief : Free digital painting software with an endless canvas.

3D Art/Animation Software:

Sculptris : From the company that created Zbrush, this free software is ideal for beginning 3D sculptors.

Maya : Animation, VFX, lighting, and rendering software.

Magical Voxel : Voxel Art (3D Pixel Art). Very intuitive and quick to pick up.

SketchUp :  Architectural modeling software, great for creating 3D environments and buildings. Free version available.

Text-Based Games:

Twine : Create interactive text stories using Twine’s visual map system that links your game together. Easy to learn and use. End result is browser-based. For Mac and PC; free.

Quest : Interactive text stories that you can build in-browser.

Ren’Py : Create visual novels using a modified version of Python that reads like a combination of stage directions and a CYOA novel. For PC, Mac, and Linux; free.

Audio Resources/Editors:

Indie Game Music : This site offers free indie music with no need to worry about royalties or licenses.

Audacity : A free, open-source, cross-platform sound editor that allows you to record and arrange sound.

Super Flash Bros. : This site allows you to record theremin-like (8bit) sounds and export them as .wav files for your games.

FL Studio : Free music composition software.

Miscellaneous Tools:

Donjon RPG Tools : Randomly generates maps, items, XP, etc.

W3Schools : Web-code tutorial database: HTML, CSS, Javascript+.

Debut Video Capture : Video screen capture to record Let’s Play videos, showcase your game on Youtube, etc.

Korsakow : Free tool for creating interactive and database films.

Processing : Flexible programming language used for visual and interactive artworks and simulations.

From Student to Designer, Part 2 : Tips for making a well-rounded, solid portfolio

Places to Publish/Share:

Itch.io : Platform for self-publishing games

Philome.la : Place to share Twine Games

@slimetony how does it feel to have your shitpost be turned into a helpful resource

It feels like a betrayal of every tenant of humor I subscribe to. Helping people is an alien concept to me. It makes me upset.

mythaelogy:

“All the reading I was given to do in school was always heterosexual, every movie I saw was heterosexual, and I had to do this translation. I had to translate it to my life rather than seeing my life. Which is why when people say to me, “Your work is not really gay work, it’s universal.” And I say, “Up yours. It’s gay. And that you can take it, and translate it to your own life is very nice, but, at last, I don’t have to do the translating. You do.””

— Harvey Fierstein, The Celluloid Closet (via sonnywortzik)

forlovefromfear:

twilightmademegay:

3denali:

twilightmademegay:

In the Twilight universe, “vegetarian” vampires have golden eyes from drinking animal blood, a more ethical source than human blood, which would give them red eyes. It has also been established that a diet of human blood makes vampires physically stronger. So, if the Cullens wanted to become stronger without jeopardizing their morals, could they consume mosquitoes instead? How many mosquitoes would they have to eat to survive? Since mosquitoes drink from both humans and animals, what color would their eyes be? Orange? In this essay, I will

on average an adult has about 4.5-5.5 liters of blood circulating in their body. a female mosquito, when completely full, can hold up to 0.001-0.01 milliliters of blood in their abdomen depending on the species. if we take the average of both (5 liters & 0.0055 milliliters), it would take around 909,090 mosquitos to equal the amount of blood in a single human. although there isnt an exact number of the entirety of the mosquito population, we can use fermi estimation. there is about 57 million square miles of total land area on earth, while say 50 million square miles are habitable for mosquitos. with a rough of estimate of 1 mosquito per 50 square feet (overestimate due to area and time of year). after multiplying the numbers and fixing the units, there is a rough estimated 70 quadrillion mosquitos. theoretically, if a vampire lived in a mosquito dense area, such as brazil, indonesia, malaysia, thailand, etc, and could sustainably hunt around a million mosquitos to fill themselves every time they needed to feed, there would be enough mosquitos to survive on due to their large population and fast reproduction.

This is honestly everything I have ever wanted thank you for your contribution to the cause

Hey guys I think I figured out why vampires can turn into bats